Lexmark Survey Shows Users Willing to Use Inkjet for Business

Lexmark’s OfficeEdge Pro 5500 business-class inkjet All-in-One.

Lexmark announced the results of a survey that show users are open to using inkjet printers and All-in-Ones in the office. According to the survey, more than half of office workers disagreed with the statement that inkjet printers are more suitable for consumers and laser printers for business. Of these, 45 percent felt that the technology is irrelevant and that it’s more about the device’s functionality and qualities, and whether they meet key requirements rather than whether they use ink or toner.

To produce the survey, Lexmark questioned 534 office workers about their understanding and use of inkjet and laser printing technologies. Respondents were located across nine European countries, including France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the U.K, and the survey was completed in November 2011.

However, the survey also showed some strong user preferences for laser versus inkjet. Those surveyed generally said they believed laser printers are superior for text quality (65 percent), robustness (64 percent) and environmental friendliness (41 percent). However, almost half (47 percent) said inkjet printers had a reputation for better photo-printing quality.

As Lexmark notes, today’s inkjet printers and All-in-Ones, such as Lexmark’s recently introduced OfficeEdge series, are increasingly rivaling their office laser counterparts for business-class feature set (network connectivity, enterprise manageability, network scanning, duplex printing, etc.), build quality, print resolution and more. Our own research shows that business-class inkjet products have a cost per page that not only matches that of laser counterparts, but in many cases is significantly lower. And, while 41 percent of respondents in the survey felt that laser products were more environmentally friendly, in reality, their inkjet counterparts are typically far more eco-friendly – they not only consumer much less energy than their laser counterparts, but required packaging for ink cartridges versus toner supplies is far less.